The SKAPA-award for young innovators has been awarded to Ahmed Mireé, CEO of the innovation company Progressive Safety AB. The SKAPA-award, the country’s largest and most prestigious innovation prize, awarded every year since 1986, is set in memory of Swedish innovator Alfred Nodel. The purpose of the prize is to support inventors so that they can transform their products into commercial opportunities. VINNOVA stands behind prices for young innovators who, besides the honour, receives a sum of 125 000 SEK.
E-Z Pin
Ahmed Mireé received the award for his invention of the safety pin E-Z Pin for fire extinguishers. E-Z Pin is a solution to the problem regarding that today’s safety pins often are pinched during panic situations and thus cannot be detached and the fire extinguisher becomes unusable. E-Z Pin is designed to enable a faster and easier fire extinguishing and eliminates the difficulty of removing the sprint from the fire extinguishers handle. Thereby, the product contributes to a safer environment for everyone.
The jury’s motivation
”The fires of this summer have brought public awareness regarding the need for fire extinguishers. The E-Z Pin is a solution that can be used as an additional device on common fire extinguishers, which provides a simpler, faster and more effective way to remove the safety pin. With the stress that most often occurs in case of a fire, it is not uncommon to grip both the operating levers which disables the removing of the safety and delays the extinguishing. The E-Z Pin has a plastic grip which can be removed even when the user is holding both the operating levers in the same grip. The pin is established in the Nordic market and has EN-approval and is patented. ”
Presto Fire Safety has decided to equip all of their ”top of the line” extinguishers with E-Z Pin as standard equipment.
Many large companies in the fire safety industry have also begun the work to replace the old type of pin with E-Z Pin when servicing fire extinguishers at their customers.
The SKAPA-award
SKAPA is a foundation founded in memory of Alfred Nobel in 1985 and awarded its first prize in 1986. Behind the foundation is Stockholmsmässan and the Swedish Inventory Association, supported by Almi Företagspartner AB, VINNOVA, the Agne Johansson’s Memorial Fund together with the Swedish patent and registration office.
Ahmed Mireé also received the 2013 SKAPA-award for Young innovators in Jönköping County for the product E-Z Extinguish, however this year it was time to bring home the national price. In association with this year’s prize ceremony of the SKAPA-award, the fair “Eget Företag” was arranged. During the fair, a pitch competition was organized, where Ahmed also won the award for best pitch, competing against all the other counties in Sweden and thereby won the prize money of 3000 SEK.
Read more about the SKAPA-award: http://stiftelsenskapa.se/hem/stiftelsen-skapa
About Progressive Safety
Progressive Safety is a Swedish company that develops fire safety products which can save lives. In the case of a fire, there are often several challenges which must be dealt with in order to perform a quick rescue operation. It is crucial that fire protection is easily accessible to all people regardless of situation, strength and technical competence. Therefore, Progressive Safety constantly work to find solutions to the problems that may arise in fire situations.
Read more about Progressive Safety: https://progressivesafety.se/en/